Memac Ogilvy has appointed Gautam Wadher as Chief Creative Officer in an effort to strengthen the company’s ‘borderless creativity’ approach across all business units.
With more than a decade of shaping creative narratives in the region, Wadher returns to Memac Ogilvy after a three-year tenure as Executive Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi.
“Having previously served as Group Creative Director, Gautam has an intuitive understanding of our integrated approach and our philosophy of borderless creativity,” said Ghassan Maraqa, CEO, Memac Ogilvy. ” His appointment strengthens our ability to deliver even more effective, innovative and creative solutions across not just advertising but all our core business units, including PR, Ogilvy One, and Ogilvy Health.”
In his new role, Wadher has been tasked with scaling up the agency’s model of integration and collaboration. The agency claims his proven ability to motivate teams and elevate creative standards is expected to further contribute to the development of the organisation and its talent.
“I’m back at the mothership, ready to partner with some killer teams and build on Ogilvy’s long-standing commitment to creative excellence,” Wadher said.
In terms of creative strategy, Wadher said his approach to the role is talent focused. “Talent runs the show. Not hours, not meetings, not slides. Talent. You put the right people in the room, give them some space to think, some room to breathe, and great work happens,” he said.
Clients and audiences can expect to see a refreshed portfolio of work stemming from the agency’s newest leadership. “Advertising has evolved and changed, but people haven’t. They still want to laugh, cry, and feel something. So that’s what we’ll do: entertain. Backed by PR, tech, social, and data because those are just tools to make people care,” Wadher said.
According to Maraqa, the agency has already seen the benefits of Wadher’s creative leadership. “He recently led the creative direction for our Toyota Lexus pitch, delivering work that demonstrated a marked [such an] elevation in creative excellence that the client couldn’t stop praising,” Maraqa said.
Moving forward, the agency hopes to leverage this creative talent to reinforce its position as a ‘true creative powerhouse.’
